Thursday, August 28, 2008

Stupid Hall of Fame is supposed to amuse. Today it makes me very mad. So, i rant... There is an Article in the Tribune Reviewabout a terrible fire that ruined 2 businesses and left 6 people with nothing just up the strett from where I live. Here is the line that pisses me off.

A woman living there was frying a chicken, he said. She fled the apartment anddid not call the fire department, Lewis said.

Here is a video so you can see the damage that Stupid has done. A fire started while cooking and She RAN AWAY??!! Are you kidding? Hell YES she should be charged. What if someone DIED in that fire??!! HUH? How damn hard is it to call 911!? There is a freaking 24 hour CoGo's across the street, she could have ran over there and had them call the fire department. Even better, the fire department is a Freaking BLOCK away!!!How would she face the families if her STUPID had killed someone? She- who ever she is- is a waste of space and air on this earth. That's soley my opinion. 6 people with no home. 2 businesses ruined. This is just further proof that humanity is living above the rules of nature now. Survival of the fittest no longer applies to us.I hate this kind of stupid.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

This is a classic "love this church" pic. It was the first one I took and it has gone on to inspire me to blog..."So tell me.... Was Circumference the $10.00 word of the week??? A horizon is straight. A Circumference is round.... hmmm"

Monday, August 18, 2008

I took Julia to PPG plaza this afternoon to play in the awesome dancing fountains there. At first she was scared and wouldn't go near it. I coaxed her several times to splash. The suddenly a light bulb went on in her head... She had a blast, giggling, splashing, running thru the water, stepping on the water spouts, getting all wet....

After the 2:30 demonstration was over, she ran around the plaza hollering to hear her voice echo, ran off with a nice lady's small bag of chips and ate them. (I offered the nice lady money for the chips but she refused) She rode on the bus really good, was mostly well-behaved and as a result, we had a lovely, exhausting day. :-) What a great way to spend my day off.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

After working a ridiculous 12 days in a row... I am tired. That's why I haven't posted recently. I am going to take this weekend to relax, sleep, spend time with my 19 month old lovable terrorist and hope my favorite church has something new and funny on Monday for me. :-)Go outside! enjoy the weekend. :-)

I found this little tibit in an article on Rueters today complaining about bad spelling and how difficult the English language is. It was the quote at the end that really got my interest:

some of Britain's greatest wordsmiths have acknowledged it's a language with irritating quirkiness.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw was fond of pointing out that the word "ghoti" could just as well be pronounced "fish" if you followed common pronunciation: 'gh' as in "tough," 'o' as in "women" and 'ti' as in "nation."

And he was a playright.

And I thought to myself.... Hmmm. That is extremely interesting.And a word to the British college students who inspired the article... Its called SPELL CHECK. Use it.

I am personally tired of those who think they are adults but really don't know shit about life. I am tired of people thinking because I am a female that they have the right to talk down to me. Heaven forbid if I respond back in kind. Then I am a bitch. You can dish it out but not take it? Well you know what? F*&$ you.

I am not hard to get along with. Don't waste my time. Don't treat me like i am your servant. DON'T talk down to me. And for the love of God, DO NOT disrepect me when I go out of my way to help. I will "be" alot of things, but your personal door mat is not one of them. Ever.

My husband doesn't talk to me that way, and I sure as hell won't let stand for it from anyone else. Period. If this makes me a bitch... So be it, cause I don't f&*$ing care.

I will start this edition of Things that piss me off, with a rant about people who forgot they scheduled their bills to be paid at all, or scheduled the payment 2 times.Good Samaritan Hackers Don't Exist!!

I mean it. They. Don't. Exist. Who hacks into someone's bank account and pays their damn bills? WHO!? Why do customers call and insist "I didn't pay my bill, someone else must have..." I want to say so bad.. "Listen! If someone is gonna get in to your bank account, *why* on earth would they pay your bills for you? How the hell would they know how much your damn bills are?"

DUH!!

The bank did not do it either. We. Can't! Why would we pay your bills and how would we know the right amounts? Think about it for goodness sake!! It is not a conspiracy to get overdraft fees out of you.. We don't have that kind of time on our hands, to sit and think of way to pick on you in particular.

You can't convince me this is a bank error and your not getting your fees back. Being stupid is expensive sometimes. That is the only way you learn to read the screen, since it showed you that you already paid the damn bills once.

When we have a record of you calling in to ask for help on how to pay a bill, don't call a month later complaining that your $1400 loan is paid off. First: It took you a WHOLE MONTH to notice $1400 was missing from your account? Must be nice... Of course being that unobservant could be why you owed $1400 on your overdraft line in the first place! Second: You called in for a payoff! Who else would call in to pay your loan? Tell me! The bank would not do that cause we are losing money if your loan is paid off.

DUH!!

I think that maybe you need to drink a little less. Stop calling at 3am for loan payoffs. Quit being a moron.

The moral? Hackers don't break in to your checking accounts to do you favors and pay your bills.Period.End of story.

I will start this edition of Things that piss me off, with a game called Call Center Jeopardy.

We, who toil away in a drab, horribly carpeted cubes all day, should be allowed to play this game. This is a shout out to listening skills... callers have no damn listening skills. They are talking to someone, checking their email, eating a snack and talking to you all at the same time. Some are even in the bathroom. (YES! I heard you flush!!)

And you are repeating yourself cause they aren't paying attention. Hello!! You called me! I am happy you *think* can multitask, but if i catch you driving, eating and talking on the phone at the same time, I am getting the hell away from you on the road! How about limiting it to.... I don't know... TWO things at once instead of FIVE. Cause your not good at it! Oh and could you possibly wait until your break to call? I am tired of the "hold on, I'll be right back callers." They call in and because they are working a front desk somewhere... put you hold 50 times during the call, and then don't listen to you cause they are doing 3 other things too... So, then you have to repeat yourself. Again.... Back to my new game I wish I could play... Alas... Its only a fantasy.

OK, so everyone knows how Jeopardy works... Alex reads a clue, contestants phrase their response in the form of a question. They can buzz in at anytime after Alex starts reading to answer, and if they are wrong they lose money. Call center Jeopardy is similar. For example, When I ask a customer a question and they answer before I am finished asking, and the answer is wrong, I should be allowed to Hang Up! Sorry, you lose your turn! When they answer with an obviously wrong answer or with every other piece of information but what i asked for, Sorry, you lose your turn!! CLICK

This is how it works now:

"May I have your account number""My phone number is 555-555-5555""OK, I can't use that... May I have your Account number please" (I have to repeat myself)OR"May I have the Date and amount of your last deposit""It was a ATM withdrawal, last weekend for like... I don't know.. $25"(this doesn't match anything on the account)"I'm sorry, I don't see that, can you give me the date an amount of your last deposit?" (I am repeating myself again)

This is how Call Center Jeopardy would work:

"May I have your account number""My phone number is 412-555-5555""Sorry, wrong answer! You lose your turn!" (CLICK)Or"May I have the Date and amount of your last deposit""it was a ATM withdrawal, last weekend for like... I don't know.. $25"(thisdoesn't match anything on the account)"I'm sorry, Your wrong, I didn't ask that. You lose your turn!(CLICK)

Oh how nice that would be... I'll dream of the day... Until then I am doomed to repeat myself and wonder how humanity manages to survive. Until next time.... :-)

So I am going to start this edition of what pisses me off with a discussion about reading. Enjoy.

Reading is such a novel concept these days. It seems there is a generation of people in society who can not be bothered to do it. They want you to hold their freaking hand, point it out and then do it for them. This is the punishment of working in customer service tech support. I am just amazed at the low levels of common sense. Bill Engvall would have a field day yelling "Here's your sign!!" to half the people I talk to.

I have evidence of this, really. They are the statements I hear on the phone every day. "OK, it says next, do I click on that?" "If I want to cancel a bill do I click on cancel?" "I forgot my password, can you tell me what it is or do I have to click on forgot password?" "This says the user id has to be all numeric, does that mean it can't be letters? I like my id's to be letters." "It says click here to enroll now... so what do I do?"

Are you *listening* to words coming out of your mouth?!?

Further evidence is no matter how idiot proof we make the site, and clearly spell out what steps come next, I still spend most of my day pointing out what is on the screen, reading it to people. Over the damn phone! Damn it! When I get really frustrated, I make them read the screen to me. READ People! Before you call and bitch for 15 minutes about an answer that's been in front of you the whole time. You spent 5 minutes setting up a transfer, at the end a message displays saying how long it will take, yet I'm here telling you the same information.

The exception to this is older people and people under 22. These two generations read. I have an easier time getting Granny online the first time then getting a lawyer, who is on the site 15 times a day, to click on a simple link to see an image. Which amazes me. I mean Granny bought her first Mac computer yesterday and she follows directions and she's surfing the web, paying bills and helping her friend get online in 10 minutes and yet Robert Idiot Esquire is complaining he doesn't see where it says checks are deducted after they are cashed. I know its there, I see it, but it is apparently 1 inch lower than he can read on the screen, leading to this retarded call. I am reading to him over the damn phone, repeating myself.. Cause he is.... say it with me... Lazy! Or maybe stupid or both.

So do me a favor, before you call customer service to complain, ask your questions to yourself first. Out loud. So that maybe you can not sound like moron when you call in and say "This says I have to create a caption, do i have to do that?"

Keep a look out for next edition of what pisses me off, we will be discussing Listening skills.